The inability to use Adobe Creative Cloud on Linux is often cited as a major barrier for many users considering a switch to the platform. But perhaps, just perhaps, there has already been a breakthrough in that direction.
A community developer says they have resolved long-standing Wine compatibility issues that prevented Adobe Creative Cloud installers from completing on Linux, publishing a patchset and prebuilt binaries that they claim enable installation of Photoshop 2021 and Photoshop 2025.
Meanwhile I’m over here struggling to get lutris to load battlenet so I can legally play my D2R lol
Maybe people will shut the fuck up about Photoshop not working on Linux now. (Not saying it’s not a valid complaint, I just get tired of hearing it.)
“Nooo you shouldn’t have to update apps from terminal. AVERAGE USER is too scared. They will never be able to remember like three letters. AVERAGE USER is dumb you see. They want to be babied by their own computer. AVERAGE USER also doesn’t know how to google for alternatives. It’s just the typical AVERAGE USER.
Anyway, adobe photoshop…”
Instead of hating on this, we should at least be happy about such a breakthrough. It’s not only about being able to use that specific kind of software on Linux, but about making the transition as smooth as possible! If people were able to bring their workflow over to Linux and then gradually make the switch to free and open source software (which is what happens 99% of the times when a NORMAL and NON tech savvy user manages to switch to Linux) then it’s fine.
This is a mean, not the goal. You gotta consider that many companies require it.
Why is the headline so incredulous of the literal developer who authored the patches?
Can someone recommend an alternative with similar features to Premiere Pro?
Davinci Resolve maybe? They have a native Linux launcher and a free trial
I am a Krita user that works on Windows using whiskey or maybe cheap beer.
Not sure how I feel about wine these days. It brings things to Linux that has wonderful replacements now. We go to Linux to escape the gunk. Not to bring the gunk.
No-one is forcing you to install Adobe software. Stop crying about other people liking choices.
Choice is good. Hate is bad.
The opposite. Wine is a crutch stopping people from choice and keeping money in the oligarch’s pocket instead of people to taking the leap and contributing to open source expansion that allows us to have choice. But I think you already knew that and chose to take a cheap shot instead for karma.
Would have taken you more seriously if you made an argument that wine at least allows people to dip their toes in the Linux community but no, you chose to sound like a “badass” instead.
So removing an option is somehow increasing choices?
My comment was more about how I feel. Wine is a choice. It’s a choice to turn off better choices out there. It’s a choice to not be strong and not take the leap to other open source alternatives. It’s a choice to keep putting money in the oligarch’s pocket.
My comment is to encourage people to turn off their fears and make that leap. It’s to encourage people to try out the alternatives and support the open source community.
But wine is also a choice for when you’re forced to use an app that your company or client requires. But if your not the that category I encourage you to try out the open source alternative.
My comment is also based on the fact that making corporate apps more accessible and mainstreamed to Linux makes better (designed) apps less supported and less robust.
…just Photoshop? Why does this text seem to conflate the words Creative Cloud and Photoshop?
This would have been great like 10 years ago before Adobe fucked a decent product up with a subscription model and AI.
The good news is the old, non-subscription versions do work in Linux.
Honestly, unless you make a shitload of money off it, subscription Adobe products are just too rich for my blood.
Would like to see some confirmation, but this is probably the #1 thing I see people say is holding them back.
In hindsight, I’m so glad I couldn’t get them working on linux, because it forced me to get my head around Darktable. I couldn’t go back to Lightroom now…
Why does everyone talk like Photoshop is the only program Adobe makes? Tell me, how does Darktable compare to Substance. Or Illustrator?
Why does everyone talk like Photoshop is the only program Adobe makes?
It’s because most professional creative jobs require raster image editing in at least some part of the production pipeline and photoshop fulfils that need in the adobe suite, so it’s the most talked about product in that suite.
For linux, we have great:
- Video editing (Davinci Resolve)
- 3d (Blender)
- Digital Art (Krita)
But raster image editing isn’t in that list.
There’s things like GIMP, but it’s always behind photoshop. It only got non-destructive editing less than a year ago (which is what most serious creatives need to use), but photoshop’s had that since CS2 back in 2005!
If someone actually wanted to beat adobe (e.g. the EU or wikimedia), they would have to pay for 20 developers to work on graphite and you’d probably have something better than GIMP or Inkscape after 7 years, something better than Affinity in 12 years, and something better than photoshop in 15 years.
The only adobe software I used was photo editing, so Lightroom and Photoshop. I have no idea what their other apps do, or how they compare to linux equivalents
Honestly I feel like that’s very common with Linux. If you’re willing to deal with the growing pain of switching it ends up working out better in the end, some people just don’t want to deal with that or it’s their job and they can’t afford to deal with that. I’m sympathetic to the latter case, less to the former but that’s just my opinion
I was one of the former. Photography isn’t my job, but it’s really important to me, and photo editing was a show stopper for me for a long time. Even after I moved to Linux full time, I was using remote desktops, VMs and whatever else I could manage to get Adobe stuff working, without having to switch back to Windows. I endured, because I’d finally hit a threshold where that pain was worth putting up with in preference to Windows and its built in ads and spyware.
But when I finally gave up on getting Lightroom working on linux, I figured I had no choice but to learn a linux compatible workflow… It was either that, or go back to windows, and that wasn’t happening…
That was exaclty me like three years ago now. I stopped editing photos for like a year because I got so fed up with windows and did the switch cold turkey. No idea why it took me so long to just watch a few workflow videos on darktable but I use it constantly now I feel like I could do better but I’m comfortable
I found darktable pretty user friendly TBH. The thing I’ve been struggling with is image editing - I can’t find something that has a decent workflow. I’m not looking for anything fancy. Paint.net on windows more than met my needs when I was spending more time in windows.
If you like Paint.net, try Pinta.
My biggest issue with darktable was the masking. It’s so different in darktable, but once I understood it, all the barriers fell away
I can’t find something that has a decent workflow. I’m not looking for anything fancy
I import, sort and tag my photos with Digikam, and then open them with darktable for editing.
Any reason why you are using digikam for importing and sorting and not just daktable?
Digikam is built from the ground up to be a photo cataloger. Hierarchical tags that you can click on to expand or contract, the ability to jump from a given photo to all photos taken on the same date, or all photos in the same folder, or all photos that share a particular tag. Collapsible folders and tag structures, the ability to toggle child tag/folder recursive view on or off, image grouping (automated by filename/timestamp/burst). They also share metadata perfectly well through EXIF data, so anything I do in one is visible in the other right away.
This is digikam

This is the same folder in darktable

I find the catalogue more convenient in digikam, but it might be because I’ve used it since the beginning.
Sorry, I meant a decent editing workflow. Things along the lines of editing - adding outlined text, moving and/or removing things, etc. For example, I’ve tried gimp a few times but I’ve found myself fighting against the way it wants you to do things.
Ah, no, I use darktable for all of my editing. But sorting my photos, rating, tagging and flagging them for future editing is all digikam.
Thanks a lot for the suggestions, I’ll have to check Pinta out.
Would Pixi editor be the kind of thing you’re looking for?
I will give it a try, thanks for the suggestion.
Every day people, no. Mainly Youtubers.
Well… Youtubers (and other creatives) are the main awareness funnel for everyday people to hear about linux in the first place.
Creatives are typically stuck on windows because their workflow doesn’t work on linux. And yes, they can change their workflow, but there’s also a high time + effort cost to doing that which gets even higher for them since they still need to produce their works while switching.
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Lightroom for me, although it is more than just the installer that breaks it.
…but why?
I guess if you have a ton of adobe specific assets and must be able to use adobe software because of legacy projects this might be useful but it just feels like tech debt.
coupled with the fact that tons of accessible software now can open psd and ai filetypes… :| hooray, I guess?
but for fuck’s sake people get off the creative cloud it’s turning into ai smog
Affinity isn’t Linux compatible yet, and Gimp has a steep learning curve (the photoshop-ification plugin for new Gimp users isn’t well advertised)
And also as good as gimp is, it’s not a drag and drop replacement for photoshop, it’s a venn diagram that’s decently overlapping, ootb anyway
This should be applicable to “alternatively sourced” PS installs too then?
alternatively sourced
I think old versions pre-adobe cloud have been working pretty well for a long time, IIRC. It’s really the latest versions that most companies force employees to use that are messed up.
But Adobe cloud is, like, 12 years old now IIRC so you’d have to be using a pretty old version.
CS 6 still works just fine
Still haven’t gotten After Effects working in wine. Everything else that I use from my master collection works well though.
no fucking way
Their dumb installer is a web app incorrectly displayed under wine. If you install an Adobe program in a virtual machine then copy its files not every program works. Like Premiere doesn’t work but Photoshop and Audition seems to work.
It could take a while to get into Wine. The test suite is pretty extensive and automated but patches can break things as well as new tests may need to be developed to ensure that testing is accurate.
Yeah, there isnt even a merge request upstream yet and it seems like no tests have been added, which I’m sure will be required before merge.
They did release a binary of their fork, and you can always build it yourself as well.















